2025 Southern California CIO Executive Summit

CIO Southern California CIO Community Southern California CIO Programs

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Southern California's top CIOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today:

Collaborating for Co-Ownership to Drive Digital Innovation

Empowering Business Technologists

Focusing on Architecture and Innovation

Governing Body Co-Chairs

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CIO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Southern California CIO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Evanta's Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

Keynote Session

Disruption Proof — High-Performing Teams that Conquer Change

In today’s fast-moving tech and security landscapes, disruption is inevitable—but it doesn’t have to derail your team’s performance. In this high-energy keynote, Dr. Vijay Pendakur will explore why disruption often leads teams to getting stuck and how this stagnation threatens business success. Using his Alchemy of Talent model, Dr. Pendakur will show how team complexity can become your superpower to conquer change. He’ll also share his three powerful catalysts that turn complexity into jet fuel for resilient, adaptable teams - and double-click on the first catalyst: trust.

Join this keynote to discover:

The critical impact that stuck teams have on business performances
How trust can unlock team potential and turn complexity into a competitive advantage
Actionable strategies to navigate change & help teams perform at their best when it matters most

Breakout Sessions

Building a Strategy for an AI-First Business

The future of business is rapidly evolving — a future where AI agents are part of the workforce, almost any process or workflow can be automated, and customers expect better, more intelligent experiences across their unstructured data. Whether that means automating loans or onboarding employees faster, applying intelligence to your unstructured data can be a pathway to stay ahead of the competition.

Join this interactive session to explore:

Practical approaches to building an unstructured data strategy
Robust content workflows and use cases for AI-first businesses
Tips for optimizing while balancing your AI and security strategies

Bridging AI Gaps – Strategies for Success

The rapid maturity of AI platforms drives enterprises to operationalize AI architectures. Though Gartner indicates 70% of enterprises maturing AI operations, 49% of leaders report difficulties in estimating and demonstrating its value — a significant gap in strategic implementation.

Join this interactive session for:

AI adoption that enhances customer experiences and drives growth
Data management for trust, predictive analytics, and innovative business applications
Innovation under strict data governance

Executive Boardroom Session

Becoming a Board-Ready CIO

As technology continues to drive business, more organizations are looking for CIOs to join their boards. How can you go from being an expert to a board-ready thought leader?

Join this session as your peers share how you can: